Instagram

No longer is Instagram reserved for #Selfies or food photos. Major brands, including our university, are actively maintaining presences on the platform in order to tell a cohesive and visual story. It allows ample opportunities to showcase exclusive content, engage with advocates and educate individuals on the brand messaging of our organization. With over 12,000 followers, Instagram has become an extremely influential channel where we engage with our community.

Feed

Your Instagram feed shows all the photos from accounts you follow. Instagram uses an algorithm to choose what content appears in your feeds, much like its parent company Facebook. The more you engage (comment or “love” photos) from particular users the more you’ll see their content in your feed.

'Grams

Instagram is a visual platform which allows for easy sharing of photos, videos or time lapses. Content is often referred to as “’grams.” It’s all about your visuals. The platform accepts photos, videos, boomerangs or LIVE! content, as well as Instagram stories.

Liking a photo

Double-tap on any photo or video in your Instagram newsfeed to “like” it as a form of engagement.

Hashtag

Words, phrases or abbreviations with a pound symbol (#) placed in front will become hyperlinked. They are a way of organizing Instagram content around a particular subject area or trend, such as #CUDenver and #CUintheCity. Don’t be afraid to use many hashtags to increase the reach of your content. It’s not uncommon to use 10 to 20 hashtags in the first comment of an Instagram post.

The idea behind Instagram is relatively simple: take a photo, edit it a bit, add a caption, include hashtags and post. Similar to other commonly used social platforms, it relies on a scrolling feed to display photos and videos from the accounts you follow. Posts can also be found by searching for specific hashtags, locations or people.

It’s easy to get lost in the mix. According to Instagram’s website, the platform currently boasts over 1 billion monthly active users, uploading approximately 100 million images and videos each day. Curating an account becomes more than simply posting appealing images, but learning how to effectively reach your intended audience and create meaningful conversations. In terms of its massive scale, Instagram can seem like a lot to tackle, but with a well thought-out strategy, you can learn to stand out.

In order to drive users to your profile, it’s essential to use consistent hashtags on your posts’ captions. Users are able to search for all images that include specific keywords, therefore making properly tagged images much more likely to appear than those that don't include hashtags. This is a simple and foolproof way to gain attention and a few followers along the way.

Establishing go-to hashtags early on will ultimately encourage followers to incorporate them into their own posts, which will only increase the visibility of your name and content. For example, the @cudenver account utilizes tailored hashtags including #CUDenver and #CUintheCity, along with the more general #AurariaCampus and #Denver.

Beyond creating your own hashtags, take the time to research applicable options that already exist and are popular on the network. Common themes or promotions such as #TBT (Throwback Thursday) demonstrate that your account is on trend, and also connects you with an established audience throughout the platform. When using hashtags make sure to add them as the first comment on your post. This will keep your written content clutter-free and much more user-friendly.

Along with specifying hashtags, it’s helpful to add your geo-location to the photo. This way, users searching for photos in certain locations can be directed to your content. By further adding it to your photomap, you can showcase where you’ve been and see what other photos have been taken at a given destination. To ensure that your location can be added to posts, you must turn on “Location Services” in your phone settings.

Instagram thrives as a highly visual platform, so it’s important to think before you post just any ordinary photo or video. We all can’t be top-notch photographers, but with an engaging subject and flattering filter almost anything can be turned into a “like”-worthy post.

The @CUDenver account takes great strides to create original content by exploring campus and attending noteworthy events. However, with limited resources, producing 100 percent original content can be time consuming. This is where user-generated photos become crucial. By regularly curating images that are posted by CU Denver students, we are able to expand our reach and our resources to anywhere in the world. When taking this approach, always be sure to ask for permission prior to sharing someone's photo.

To find content, simply rely on using the hashtags we mentioned earlier. Run searches relevant to your brand to identify natural advocates. Websites, such as dinsta.com, allow you to download Instagram photos so you can re-post on your profile. Make sure to always credit the source by including their handle in your caption. Common courtesy goes a long way in social.

You may decide to share behind-the-scenes content, images from events, or fan-submitted photos, but remember to always keep the message consistent with your brand. Find your voice and stay true to it!

What seems like a simple photo or video post is actually so much more – it’s a strategic way to reach out to your audience and grab their attention. You have to show them something interesting enough that they’ll follow your account, like your photos and share content to be featured. Being conscious of your demographics, posting times and frequency can help you achieve maximum results.

It is best practice to post on Instagram every day. However, if you don’t have enough content to make that a reality, focus on being consistent with whatever frequency you choose.

If you’re covering an awesome event and want to post multiple photos in a single day, you can do that. However, keep in mind Instagram now allows you to make a single post with multiple images that you can scroll through. That is a better option than creating multiple posts. The key is to always keep your audience in mind. What will they respond best to?

It should go without saying, but posting regularly on your account is not enough – you must actively engage with followers. Liking, commenting on and sharing photos are all ways to step up your game and increase your visibility. Fans love it when we acknowledge their posts and some even post about being recognized by CU Denver. It’s exciting to see such positive feedback and an excellent testament to the emphasis we place on social.

Another way to engage with followers is relatively common sense: follow them back. You don’t have to follow everyone, but definitely reach out to those who continually like or comment on your photos. This is a great way to reward them for being an active follower, and maybe they’ll in turn promote your account within their friend group. The more fans that you follow, the more opportunities you’ll have for finding relevant content and establishing ties within the community.

Once you rally followers and master regularly updated content, consider running an Instagram contest. Whether it consists of a simple “Caption this!” or a full-fledged month-long challenge, anything will help bring in followers and awareness to your brand. Plus, everyone loves prizes!

Here are a few additional tips to ensure your contest is a success:

Establish clear goals and guidelines to follow.

Determine a time frame, how you will keep track of entries, how winners will be chosen, etc.

Make sure every member of your team understands the contest rules, so there is no confusion.

Endorse available prizes and rules in the launch of your contest, with a simple graphic. People will be much more likely to participate if free things are involved!

After establishing the contest rules and creating promotional materials, distribute this message across multiple channels, not just your Instagram account. Doing so will encourage a wider variety of participants to join and increase exposure to your account. We usually tweet about smaller, one-day contests, while featuring larger campaigns on Facebook.

From there, monitoring entries and selecting winners is the fun part. The Direct Message feature makes notifying the winners extremely simple. On the home tab, you should see the DM icon on the top right corner. Once inside, click the plus sign and upload a congratulatory image. You are then prompted to select the users with whom you’d like to message.

If the contest involves users submitting photos, feel free to create a collage of the winning entries and post to your account. This is the perfect way to give the winners a shout-out (and make them feel special) while encouraging others to participate in future contests. It is also consistent with the ways in which Instagram runs and promotes its very popular weekly challenges.